Patterson Creek Cutoff
railway line in the United States of America
The Patterson Creek Cutoff is an abandoned railroad line built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in northern West Virginia and Western Maryland, that served trains running on the B&O "West End" line in the Cumberland, Maryland area. The cutoff route ran from McKenzie, Maryland to Patterson Creek, West Virginia, providing a bypass of the B&O rail yard in Cumberland for coal trains moving between Keyser, West Virginia and Brunswick, Maryland.
The B&O opened the double track line in 1904, and it included the Knobley Tunnel and a bridge, both of which are still in existence. Knobley Tunnel passes through Knobly Mountain and is slightly less than 1 mile (1.6 km) in length. The cutoff was later reduced to single track, and ultimately abandoned in the early 1970s by the Chessie System, successor to the B&O. The rails have been removed from the bridge structure, and a few railroad ties are in an advanced state of decomposition. The line's right-of-way can still be easily distinguished, especially in McKenzie, where there is a large cut and fill.
CSX Transportation, the successor to the Chessie System, continues to operate the main rail line in the McKenzie area as the Mountain Subdivision, and the Cumberland Subdivision in the Patterson Creek area.
The public source identifies “Patterson Creek Cutoff” as railway line in the United States of America. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Patterson, Creek and Cutoff.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Patterson Creek Cutoff”, the useful work is to connect “railway line in the United States of America” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 26, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7148437. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1904.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Patterson Creek Cutoff”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Patterson Creek Cutoff primary sources, Patterson Creek Cutoff archive and Patterson research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patterson Creek Cutoff”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Patterson Creek Cutoff” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.